From the moment the NASCAR Cup Series unloaded at Watkins Glen International this past weekend, it was clear the only way anybody was going to beat Shane van Gisbergen was if the No. 97 team beat itself. And for a moment, it looked like they had done exactly that.
Early on in the third and final stage of Sunday's Go Bowling at the Glen, the caution came out for Joey Logano littering tire debris on the track. With everybody at the edge of their fuel window, nearly all of the leaders came down pit road except for van Gisbergen and a few others. It didn't seem like it made any sense whatsoever, unless the thought process was that nobody was going to make it without stopping for gas.
Some cars did make it without stopping. And the New Zealand native still won by more than seven seconds.
Shane van Gisbergen continues to find new ways to outdo himself, and we've never seen anything like it
It's almost as if the No. 97 team put themselves in such an adverse position just to provide a challenge for van Gisbergen. NASCAR might need to require that he starts from the back at every road course just to give everybody else a chance. Even then, he'd probably be leading by halfway. He's just that much better than the competition.
The win for van Gisbergen is his seventh overall, and sixth in the past seven road or street course races. He's only two away from tying Jeff Gordon for the most all-time. It's probably a safe bet that once it's all said and done, the Trackhouse Racing driver is going to obliterate that record.
Obviously, van Gisbergen has had more opportunities to win on road courses per season than Gordon did, but he's also winning them at a significantly greater rate. Based on winning percentage, he clears any other driver from the modern era, and it's not even close.
Back to a 50% win rate for SVG on Road courses, tied 2nd best of all time https://t.co/361FEsYiNA
— Daniel Céspedes (@_DanielCespedes) May 10, 2026
It's also not just the frequency of van Gisbergen's wins that makes him special; it's how he wins them. In four of his seven victories, including Sunday's, he has led more than half of the laps in the race. On a regular basis, his lap times on equal tires are multiple tenths of a second faster than the field.
No matter what anybody throws at van Gisbergen, he finds a way. And after his stunning comeback performance on Sunday, there's no more denying it. We are in the presence of the greatest NASCAR road course racer of all-time.
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